Legal experts watching the investigation of Barry Bonds say prosecutors gain an advantage when they bring a recalcitrant witness before a second grand jury -- the prospect that he'll serve a long prison term if he remains silent.

That's the dilemma Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, will face next week just days after winning his freedom from a federal prison.

On Thursday, the grand jury investigating whether Bonds committed perjury when he denied knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs disbanded after its term ended. U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan's office said it would continue looking into the case, and federal agents subpoenaed Anderson to appear in front of a second grand jury next Thursday.

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Anderson spent the past 15 days in federal prison in Dublin for refusing to testify before the last grand jury, but by law had to be released when its term expired. If he continues to refuse to cooperate, he could be behind bars for as long as the new grand jury is in business -- which may be a year or more.

Joe Russoniello, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco from 1982 to 1990, said he remembered his office impaneling second grand juries many times during his tenure, in cases such as espionage, drug trafficking and white-collar crime. The same witnesses often testified in front of both juries, he said.

"It's important to remember, if a witness is refusing to testify and is held in contempt with a new grand jury, the contempt is for the life of a new grand jury," Russoniello said. "Twelve months is likely to be more persuasive than a two-week vacation."

Russoniello said it's hard to predict how Anderson will react to being forced back into court, though his attorney said Thursday that he would again refuse to testify. Russoniello, however, noted that prosecutors would gain other benefits from a new grand jury even if Anderson declines to say anything.

"This gives prosecutors an opportunity to find new witnesses, bring in people that they did not present the first time and to cross-examine witnesses they believe may have testified falsely the first time around," Russoniello said. "They can also give those witnesses an opportunity to come in and tell the truth and show the jury that they were lying the first time."

"Maybe the third witness said something the first two didn't; this gives the government a chance to bring back the first two and ask them why," Beale said. "It gives them the opportunity to iron out some wrinkles and develop other leads."

Anderson pleaded guilty to dealing steroids and money laundering in the BALCO case in July 2005 and served three months in prison. He was the only witness known to refuse to testify before the grand jury looking into whether Bonds committed perjury when testifying before the panel that indicted Anderson and three other men.

Legal observers speculated that prosecutors hadn't called Anderson to testify until approximately 14 months into the grand jury's term because they may have been negotiating with his lawyers.

"Most of the time people called to testify before grand juries don't have lawyers, but in this kind of a high-profile case, everyone does," said Joshua Dressler, a criminal law expert and professor at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law. "These people have lawyers who are guarding their rights, and prosecutors have to work through their attorney, so it slows the process down."

Dressler said the high visibility of the Bonds case is no doubt influencing the government's desire to operate cautiously, which may be one of the reasons prosecutors did not seek an indictment from the first grand jury.

Noting that grand juries hear only from prosecution witnesses who aren't cross-examined by defense attorneys, Dressler said obtaining an indictment is often far easier than winning a conviction.

"In a high-profile case like this, they don't want to end up with egg on their faces," Dressler said. "It would be very embarrassing to have it all go down in flames. There's no point in getting an indictment that doesn't give you a stronger bargaining position or doesn't result in a conviction in a case like this."